Thrashin' to the Oldies

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Tony Hawk wasn't the first skateboarding game, you know.

By Levi Buchanan

Next week, Electronic Arts debuts the next chapter in its Skate franchise, the first serious challenger to Activision's Tony Hawk juggernaut since, well, the very first Tony Hawk's Pro Skater for the PlayStation in 1999. Since then, the Hawk name has been the premiere brand in skateboarding videogames, regardless of the franchise's wildly veering quality leading up to the most recent console edition: Tony Hawk's Proving Ground. Activision is indeed forging on with the series (it would be ludicrous not to) with the upcoming Tony Hawk's Adrenaline, although the game is being developed by a different team than Neversoft, the studio the created the profitable franchise for Activision.

Skateboarding videogames were not born in 1999, though. Prior to Hawk's nine-year flight on the charts, a number of skate games have come and gone, each influenced by the dominant trends in the arena. Before the whole "extreme games" trend that resulted in alternative sports, Gravity Games, and Pink's soon to be ex-husband, skateboarding enduring several turbulent cultural periods from its assumed development in southern California through the seventies (the Z-boys era) and into the eighties, which saw serious commercialization of skateboarding and the rise of "names" like Rodney Mullen and Tony Hawk. (Remember the Bones Brigade?)

The skateboarding games of the eighties fused the two movements -- freestyle and vert -- and tried hard to be as cool as the sport itself projected. Some games succeeded. Some did not. (See: Super Skateboardin' for the Atari 7800.) But on the eve of Skate 2, IGN Retro takes a look back at the notable pre-Hawk skateboarding titles that thrilled a nation of gamers.

There was once a time when the 720 was considered the biggest trick you could pull off it skateboarding... at least, until Hawk pulled off a 900 in 1999 at the X Games. This trick -- two full rotations in midair -- served as the titular inspiration for this incredibly popular Atari-made arcade game. Designed by John Salwitz and Dave Ralston in 1986, 720 towered over other arcade cabinets due to its unique design. Atari placed the speakers for the game atop the cabinet to approximate a boom box (or the now-uncomfortable term "ghetto blaster"). But to control your boarder, you needed something different from a traditional stick. So Atari crafted a tilted joystick that resides on a disc that can spin 360 degrees. The stick allowed gamers to pull off huge spins in the air, which resulted in bonus scores that let you open up new areas of 720's sprawling skate parks.

When you first drop a quarter in 720, you're nothing more than a skate punk with shoddy gear and zero reputation. To remedy each dilemma, you must compete in a series of skate events in the four different parks: slalom, downhill, ramp, and jump. Entry to a park requires a ticket, and you only have one ticket at the start of the game on easy mode. You must tear through events and "medal" in order to earn enough points to trade for additional tickets. You also earn cash inside events that can be spent at skate shops in 720's hub world, which is full of skaters, refugee tricycles from Paperboy, police, and futuristic cars that place the game in a weird time warp.

Downhill, ramp, and the hub world of 720.

The hub world is not just a place to shop and seek out skate parks. It's a critical part of the game. Points that you fail to earn in events can be made up in the hub world by jumping off small ramps, leaping over water fountains, and bouncing off hazards. There are also bills swirling on city breezes that can be captured and used to buy new gear, like helmets and boards. You cannot spend an unlimited amount of time in the hub, earning points and cash. A timer ticks down as you scour the streets. If you have not earned a ticket and entered a skate park when the timer empties, a swarm of killer bees chases you down. As if this wasn't stressful enough, the boom box bellows, "Skate or die!" And it meant it. If those bees touch you, you crumple to the ground and the game ends. Should you have more coins in your pocket, you can continue without losing any of your skate park progress.

720 was not a forgiving game. It was one of those cabinets that separated the hardcore arcade fiends from the people that just enjoyed an occasional game of Donkey Kong Jr. or Pac-Man. Atari did license the game out for the NES, but without that important controller, it just wasn't the same experience. The d-pad may still be one of the greatest controller innovations of all-time, but for 720 to truly be 720, you needed that rotational stick.